Seizing Moments
by dotheyreally
Summary: What is the power of a moment? D/Hr oneshot for the Valentine's Day challenge.


**Disclaimer: I do not own HP. :-)**

**A/N: This is for .com! x it's a valentine's day challenge entitled "valen-time" HEHE. I hope you like it, folks. ;-)  
**

**Seizing Moments**

_It doesn't matter if I have ten thousand more moments like this, or just this one, because it's all the same. – Maggie Murdock, __**Love And Other Drugs**_

She was staring outside the window of the Astronomy Tower, focusing on the green grass and the fully bloomed roses that grew beside the patch of garden she was staring at. Couples were frolicking and kissing each other as she eyed Cupid flying around with his bow and arrow in tow, waiting to unite two lonely people in search of each other.

Hermione Granger kept her focus despite the blatant show of abhorrence drawn vividly on the features of her face. She scoffed at the girls she had seen who would beg their boyfriends to take them back, even if they clearly knew their men had moved on. She laughed sadistically at the men who would try so hard to win a girl's heart but would fail due to their incessant begging for their men to take them back.

She sighed heavily. It was Valentine's Day 1997.

A vicious cycle.

Eleven seconds.

_Where was he?_

"So, there you are," a familiar voice drawled idly behind her. "I've been looking all over…"

"Could we just get this over with?" she snapped, her arms crossed tightly on her chest. "They're going to be looking for us."

Nine seconds.

"Must you always get so huffy?"

Hermione tensed up as she felt his hot breath on her neck, playing and teasing her skin.

He was so close.

He was practically behind her.

"Why don't you turn around, Granger?"

Hermione's eyes were planted firmly on the scenery.

"Why?" her voice trembled, her hands now down on both sides of her body.

He grabbed her hand and spun her around until her face was in front of hers.

Seven seconds.

"What on earth did you…"

"Hush up now, will you?" he traced the outline of her lips with his finger.

Hermione's heart was beating wildly.

Five seconds.

She felt the softest of lips on hers and she had suddenly felt this feeling that she had wanted time to stop.

Three seconds.

She was kissing back.

Two.

"I'm now part of your past."

He let go.

One.

Hermione Granger found herself hiding behind the door to the Astronomy Tower and she checked her watch.

The footsteps were growing louder and louder.

She saw a curly-haired brunette running down the stairs and had disappeared into the hallways, never to be found again.

Hermione sank down as muffled cries escaped from her mouth. She knew that her Time-Turner was finite yet she could have as many returns back as she wanted.

But that was the closest thing she could have to a certain someone she knew she couldn't land.

Giggles echoed throughout the otherwise empty hall as she heard soft, pattering footsteps nearing her area. She tiptoed backwards until she found a door to the right of the Tower entrance. She locked herself inside until the giggles disappeared.

"Must we always sneak out like this?"

Pansy Parkinson.

"It was your choice, Parkinson," she heard him drawl. "It was either that or the broom closet."

Hermione watched painfully as he had started to kiss her numerously, his lips brushing perfectly on the Slytherin girl's own. Tears burned in her orbs as she gripped onto her Time-Turner.

She could never have Draco Malfoy.

She suddenly pinched the side of her hourglass.

_No, Hermione,_ she thought. _You promised this would be the last you'd do. And besides, wasn't this Turner only used for academic reasons?_

She closed her eyes as she felt her hands numb from her grip on the object.

She had almost agreed until Pansy moaned, "Oh, Draco…"

More giggles.

As Hermione sobbed quietly in her hiding space, she now knew the importance of holding onto a moment. A moment was fleeting, a moment would pass, and yet a moment would hold onto you forever.

But that was it.

She only had a moment with him. Only fourteen seconds to have him. And she would never tire from turning and running. But she knew that was the closest thing she could claim to herself that he had held her for that brief number of seconds.

Hermione sniffed silently as she spun the hourglass.

_What's one more time?_

The next night, she walked alone down the hallway, clinging onto her textbooks as she traversed. She saw couples frolicking yet again at her sides as lovebirds began to fill the passageways with petals and song.

She blamed Harry and Ron.

Ron was probably moping in the Common Room due to his unabating complaint of no one wanting him for Valentine's Day. Hermione had chided him constantly about the huge allotment time had given him to look for one.

But yet, even if Lavender Brown was always rapping wildly on his door, he never liked her. She was so annoying.

Hermione was so jealous of Ron. She knew that despite his want for women to come knocking on his Common Room door, he was just fine with being alone.

Harry, however, was not.

He had spent so much time away from the group and was constantly with Ginny Weasley. The red-haired sister of Ron and the boy wonder had gotten together after fifth year (and after Ginny's fourth year) and had been strong ever since.

Thoughts suddenly sunk her in some kind of pensive as she remembered Draco Malfoy's eyes before he had kissed her. She knew that was just a dare, a common demand from their peers. She knew that it was just a way to spite the both of them, knowing their mutual hatred for one another.

Harry and Ron were not okay with this but soon joined in the madness when Ginny had forced Harry to.

His eyes were a beautiful shade of grey.

She had remembered.

They held in so much desire, so much passion…

She had wished to level his with hers.

She had wished for…

"Watch where you're going, Granger." a voice uttered.

Hermione looked up to see that she was face to face with Draco Malfoy.

She kept silent.

Draco, however, was waiting for an argument from her.

All her thoughts were colliding.

There he was.

_What should I say?_

"What?" he said. "Nothing to say?"

Hermione's eyes looked up at him and he could have sworn he saw tears forming.

"Sorry."

She walked away without a sound as Draco Malfoy and his jaw were left hanging.

"Granger!"

She was staring outside the window of the Astronomy Tower, focusing on the green grass and the fully bloomed roses that grew beside the patch of garden she was staring at. Couples were frolicking and kissing each other as she eyed Cupid flying around with his bow and arrow in tow, waiting to unite two lonely people in search of each other.

Hermione Granger kept her focus despite the blatant show of abhorrence drawn vividly on the features of her face. She scoffed at the girls she had seen who would beg their boyfriends to take them back, even if they clearly knew their men had moved on. She laughed sadistically at the men who would try so hard to win a girl's heart but would fail due to their incessant begging for their men to take them back.

She sighed heavily. It was Valentine's Day 1998.

A vicious cycle.

Last year, she would have wanted to poke fun at those who were lonely but seeing as she was part of them, she decided not to. She gripped her time-turner in her hand and fiddled with it.

"So, tell me, why is it that every Valentine's Day, I always see you up here on this tower alone?"

Hermione stiffened. She felt her heart rise to her throat as she swallowed nervously.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

She heard the stranger scoff.

"Oh, I doubt that," the stranger replied. She heard the stranger's footsteps growing nearer and nearer. "I've seen you several times, running up and down the stairs."

Hermione gasped.

_He knew._

She gripped the Turner even tighter.

"What flight of stairs are you talking about?" she snapped, still focusing on the scenery downstairs. "There are a whole lot of stairs that exist in this area alone."

The scintillating light the moon had given reflected the white skin of Hermione Granger as well as gave light to the stranger who was now beside her, his hand inches away from hers.

"I knew it."

Hermione waited for him to continue, knowing full well what he was going to say next.

"A Time-Turner! Of course." He laughed to himself.

Draco turned to his left and saw that Hermione was crying. He hushed up immediately.

"What? Don't you think holding a Time-Turner's humorous?"

"What is so funny about the past?"

"Well, the funny thing about it is it technically does not exist anymore," Draco explained, his hair falling on his grey eyes. "You could keep revisiting it but it gives some sort of false hope called 'what could have been.' I mean, destiny may be manipulated but again, it's still destiny. And even when you try to turn time around, it still…"

He stiffened as he felt Hermione's hand brush the hair out of his orbs.

"…was bound to happen."

"I'm sorry," Hermione retracted her hand immediately. "It looks good when all your strands are up."

Draco let out a suppressed sigh.

"Why do you have that Time-Turner anyway?" he asked. "Do you have something you want to revisit constantly?"

"Not that it matters to you."

"Maybe it does." He gazed into her eyes and she felt her resistance slipping as he neared her.

"Don't you remember what happened here last year?" she asked as she turned away from him, her hands now gripping the white concrete of the tower window.

"Oh, when I was caught with Pansy Parkinson here during Valentine's?"

Hermione paled.

Draco looked at her and gave her a jesting look.

"I'm just kidding, Granger," he replied. "Don't get your knickers in a tizzy."

Hermione exhaled.

"Oh now, I remember!" he snapped his fingers. "I kissed you here last year. Yes, I do recall."

She smiled weakly.

"Well, there," she said, her fingers shaking. "I revisit that moment once in a while, you know, just so I am reminded that I was not alone last year."

"You are amazing, you are," Draco clapped his hands. "You're a downright trooper."

"Why?"

"So you're saying that you revisit _once in a while_?"

"Yes," Hermione croaked. "Do you revisit too?"

"Well, yes," Draco admitted. "But more often than you do, I guess."

"How often?"

Draco hesitated.

"All the time."

Hermione sighed.

"All the time?"

"You don't trust me?"

Hermione giggled shyly.

Draco walked over to her and gripped her hand, his fingers interlacing with hers.

And then he pulled her closer.

"I have a proposition, Granger." he said, his voice barely a whisper.

Hermione felt his hot breath and she shivered.

"What… What is it?" she stammered as she felt his body closing in on hers.

"I want to destroy the Time Turner."

"What?" Hermione broke off from him. "Are you crazy?"

"I wouldn't want you to be stuck in the past."

"What if I want to look back at those moments with Harry, with Ron…"

She sighed, tearing up again.

"With you?"

Draco smiled, shaking his head.

"You do not understand, Granger," he said. "I have not even said the other half of my deal yet."

"There's another part?"

"Would you destroy the Time Turner if…" he reached for her hand again. "I promise to give you ten thousand more Valentine's Day moments?"

"Are you…"

"You don't need a Time Turner to look back, Granger."

"Why not? Tell me again."

Draco raised her hand to his lips and he whispered,

"Because I promise to be your past," he kissed her hand once.

"Your present," he kissed her arm.

He pulled her close again.

"And possibly," he caressed her cheek with the back of his finger. "Your future."

"So, are you saying that we'll meet up here every Valentine's Day? Just so you can give me a moment?"

"Well, that would be pretty boring," he drawled as he played with one of her curls. "Not seeing you everyday and kissing you."

She snickered softly.

"But okay," he whispered. "We can meet up here every year. Just so we both know we're not alone."

Hermione nodded.

"And it sounds so sexy, so forbidden," Draco smiled mischievously. "Having an affair with the Gryffindor Princess."

"Now stop talking."

"Why?"

"Just…" she traced the outlines of his lips with her finger. "Stop."

She grabbed him by the collar and kissed him with a burning passion. She shut her eyes as she succumbed yet again to the heat of Slytherin's royal own. She felt his lips move down to her chin and then to her neck and she whimpered in exultation.

They had kissed longer than a moment could allow and Draco held her closer as if she would disappear lest he loosen his grip.

Twelve midnight had struck and the two lovers were on the floor, staring into each other's eyes.

He fiddled with her curl and he said, "You look so beautiful."

"I love you."

Draco held her hand.

"I love you too."

She kissed him softly on his bottom lip.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Granger."

"Happy Valentine's Day, Malfoy."

He stood up and reached for her hand. He pulled her up and wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Until next year?"

"Until next year."

"Oh! I almost forgot."

The two lovers went their separate ways: Draco to the dungeons and Hermione to her common room. Behind them was a mangled piece of gold jewelry with overflowing sand.

"I am your present." Draco called after her.

Hermione smiled back in return.

"Yes you are."

The deal was sealed.

She was staring outside the window of the Astronomy Tower, focusing on the green grass and the fully bloomed roses that grew beside the patch of garden she was staring at. Couples were frolicking and kissing each other as she eyed Cupid flying around with his bow and arrow in tow, waiting to unite two lonely people in search of each other.

Hermione Granger kept her focus despite the blatant show of abhorrence drawn vividly on the features of her face. She scoffed at the girls she had seen who would beg their boyfriends to take them back, even if they clearly knew their men had moved on. She laughed sadistically at the men who would try so hard to win a girl's heart but would fail due to their incessant begging for their men to take them back.

She sighed heavily. It was Valentine's Day 2005.

A vicious cycle.

But she knew that this year was going to be the same and she did not need the use of a Time Turner anymore.

She felt the tap of Draco's finger on her shoulder and she kissed him lovingly.

But the way he looked was totally different.

He was pasty, nervous, and shaky.

"What's wrong, Draco?" she said, holding his hand. "Are you still nervous? We've done this for seven years now."

He had not uttered a word.

"Draco?"

He suddenly knelt down.

"Draco!" she exclaimed. "Are you going to have a fainting spell?"

He looked down as he fiddled with his pocket.

"Draco, darling!"

She found him opening a small box with a 24-carat diamond inside.

"What—" her eyes were brimming with tears.

"Instead of making one moment every year count," he said. "How about spending _every_ waking moment with me by your side?"

"I—"

"I've promised to be your past and present," he smiled. "And I have fulfilled both. Now will you allow me to be your future too?"

She jumped on him and they both fell to the floor.

"Yes."

She kissed him on the lips.

"Yes. Yes. Yes."

Draco resumed his cool stance but was overcome with so much passion and love for the woman in front of him.

"Did I fulfill my promise?"

Hermione nodded, her head facedown on his taut chest.

"Yes."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

And they never looked back.


End file.
